Editor's note: "This Week in Alaska Business History" revisits events that shaped our past.

"Those who cannot

remember the past are

condemned to repeat it."

-- George Santayana, 1863-1952

20 years ago this week

Anchorage Times

April 15, 1981

Sohio makes oil find in Beaufort

Reservoir may be promising

By Bill Blessington

Times Writer

Sohio Alaska Petroleum Co. has announced the discovery of potentially commercial quantities of oil in the Beaufort Sea from a pool stretching at least 6 1/2 miles long.

The discoveries were made in Sohio's Sag Delta No. 7 and Sag Delta No. 4 wells just off the Sagavanirktok River northeast of the Prudhoe Bay field, North America's largest oil reservoir.

The Sag No. 7 well produced oil at a rate of 4,400 barrels a day and is considered particularly promising by Sohio officials. Sag Delta No. 4 well produced oil at a rate of 2,473 barrels a day.

"There is a significant amount of oil offshore in a discrete field," said Roger Herrera, explorations manager for Sohio. He said the new Sohio discoveries are apparently part of an oil pool that Exxon announced discoveries on last year.

Anchorage Times

April 15, 1981

Land snag costly, say farmers

By Al Campbell

For The Times

PALMER -- A group of would be farmers, successful in last month's Point MacKenzie land lottery, say court challenges of the lottery may cost them millions of dollars because of inflation and interest charges on equipment, labor and construction materials.

About 20 of the 30 successful applicants met here Wednesday to demonstrate their impatience and anger at the legal challenges, currently before the Superior Court.

After the March sale, seven unsuccessful applicants filed a lawsuit claiming, among other things, that a requirement that applicants had to file a farm plan was illegal and unfair.

The state planned to permit purchase by the lottery winners of about 15,000 acres in the Point MacKenzie area for dairy farms and for general farm use. The purchase plan is in limbo pending a final court action.

10 years ago this week

Alaska Journal of Commerce

April 15, 1991

Conoco threatens lawsuit

By Ray Tyson

For the Journal of Commerce

If the Alaska Department of Natural Resources rejects Conoco's bid for a rate cut on state royalty oil produced from the Milne Point field on the North Slope, the company says it may take the department to court for breach of contract.

"We haven't made a decision, but we're certainly evaluating that option," said Al Hastings, Conoco's Alaska director of external affairs.

It now appears certain Natural Resources Commissioner Harold Heinze is going to accept staff recommendations to reject Conoco's application to reduce the state's royalty share on Milne Point from 20 percent to 5 percent.

Alaska Journal of Commerce

April 15, 1991

Siberia volume disappoints NAC

Freight volumes to and from the Soviet Far East may be much less that originally hoped by Northern Air Cargo, the Alaska-based all-freight carrier recently awarded Pacific cargo rights to the Soviet Union.

NAC President Wilson Hughes said this is an apparent consequence of concerns among U.S. firms over growing political and economic instability in the U.S.S.R., causing them to go slow on new Soviet trade and investment deals.

This, in turn, reduces the amount of goods likely to be shipped back and forth on Northern Air's new scheduled service.

Hughes told the Resource Development Council in Anchorage that NAC still plans to begin scheduled cargo service to Magadan and Khabarovsk next August, but at a level of service yet to set.

-- Compiled by Ed Bennett.